Athletes such as baseball catchers, softball catchers, kendo players, sword fighters, hockey players and the like often wear protective masks around their heads to protect their heads and faces from injuries. A conventional protective frame of a mask has a structure shown in FIG. 1. This conventional protective frame 1 is usually worn in front of an athlete's face by use of a buffered protector (not shown).
The conventional protective frame 1 constructed into a three-dimensional configuration by assembling multiple metallic bars through welding includes a first bar 11 formed as a closed loop, an U-shaped second bar 12 with two open ends welded to a top segment of the first bar 11, a C-shaped third bar 13 welded forwardly and horizontally across the first bar 11 and the second bar 12, a fourth bar 14 welded forwardly and horizontally across the first, second and third bars 11, 12, 13, a fifth bar 15 formed as a closed loop and welded to the first, second and fourth bars 11, 12, 14, and a plurality of sixth bars 16. The conventional protective frame 1 is essentially composed of a multiplicity of bent metallic bars 11-16 fixed together by welding. The bars 11-16 maybe solid iron bars, which are relatively heavy, or made from aluminum alloys. Note that the directional terms, such as forwardly and horizontally, used hereinabove have their ordinary meanings in terms of direction when the conventional protective frame 1 is worn on a user's face that defines the forward direction.
The welding involved in the fabrication of the conventional protective frame 1 requires manpower, the cost of which, while significant, does not result in consistent, smooth welding joints, especially at right-angled connections, with the finished product being neither appealing to the eye nor easily repairable. Besides, upon impact, the conventional protective frame 1 may dismantle at the welding joints.